pilotage

[kath]

All the talk about the Cessna incursion in D.C. has made me think a lot about my one trip some months ago into the ADIZ in a C152. For navigation, I had one VOR receiver, a current chart, a brain, and a helpful passenger (no GPS). I was in completely unfamiliar territory. Coming from the northwest, the plan was to head towards EMI VOR, via the "Prettyboy Reservoir", and then to IAD. Crossing the Susquehanna River, I spotted the reservoir (a lake with a goofy twisty shape) and made a bee line for it. Turns out it was the wrong reservoir -- I was headed for Loch Raven Reservoir, which is inside the ADIZ/Bravo. It has a similar goofy twisty shape. After a few miles, I caught the error because my VOR needle (tuned to EMI) had deflected way off course, which didn't make sense. We easily figured out the error, spotted the correct reservoir, and all was right with the world.

When I realized my reservoir error, it felt scary to know that I'd made an error that would've taken me straight into the ADIZ. I remember telling my passenger, "Whew! That was lucky!" I've been thinking about that error even more recently. Making errors is inevitable. I gotta think I would've figured it out in plenty of time. (The city of Baltimore is pretty hard to miss.) I do not want to let go of my faith in pilotage as a form of navigation. It's my favorite by far.

I cringe whenever I hear someone say "I'd never go there without a GPS!" because that trip into D.C. was one of the most fun flights I've ever taken.

Educational too. Backup navigation. As my CFII would say, "Use everything in the airplane." Even if it's just one VOR.

That's my random thoughts for the day,

--Kath

 

[poadeleted3]

Pilotage is fun, easy for me, and the most fun way to navigate, IMHO. However, I don't think pilotage is an adequate navigational technique around the ADIZ unless you call it your home. As you discovered, it's just too easy to mistake one landmark for another, and the stakes are simply too high and the effects to widespread to tolerate that chance. One VOR is plenty, especially when backed up with the Mark 1 eyeball and a chart, but I think it's also the minimum navigational equipment needed.

Just my opinion. I'm sure there are plenty who disagree with me.

 

[gismo]

Long before 9/11, ADIZ's, GPS, and even LORAN, I learned to use a VOR to keep me clear of SUA in unfamiliar areas. If you pick a radial from an appropriate station that you would have to cross to stray into trouble the CDI can easily tell you when you are getting too close to that line.

 

[wsuffa]

I agree with Joe. Especially if you're not from the area, plan on using navigational aids or GPS. There simply is too much at stake with the ADIZ to take chances. Use pilotage elsewhere, but do everything possible to minimize risk in the DC area. That includes flight-following if you can get it.

The whole environment today is one reason that I file and fly IFR whenever practical and possible (local training flights excluded, for example).

 

[Len Lanetti]

"Whew! That was lucky!"

Kath,

I respectfully disagree. It wasn't luck...something wasn't right...your brain told you so...you listened and using the skills of a pilot figured out what was wrong and corrected the issue. You were the master of your destiny like any good Pilot In Command should be.

Len

 

[gismo]

Kath,

I respectfully disagree. It wasn't luck...something wasn't right...your brain told you so...you listened and using the skills of a pilot figured out what was wrong and corrected the issue. You were the master of your destiny like any good Pilot In Command should be.

Len's right. It would have been luck if while heading towards the misidentified landmark you happened to spot something more interesting in the direction away from the SUA and as a result turned away before penetrating it. You used a tool and the use of that tool prevented the mistake from becoming an issue.

 

[poadeleted20]

Len and Lance are right -- it wasn't luck, it was good training and procedures. You had backups to your primary nav, and when things didn't agree, you recognized that something was wrong, identified the error, and fixed it right quick. That's how it's done right.

 

[judypilot]

Len, Lance, and Ron are right. Lance's suggestion about picking a radial that will keep you clear is also a good one--I've used that many, many times. However, I don't just follow the radial, I keep monitoring everything else as well, just in case. Kath, I'm with you, it's just not that hard if you're paying attention. About the only things you might have done differently are (a) before you got to the wrong lake, realize that you weren't on the right heading for your target lake, or (b) figured out ahead of time that there were multiple twisty lakes close to your path and that you would have to be extra careful to pick the right one. But that's not a criticism, just a suggestion for refinements of your technique. Also, lakes are tough--from any distance, unless you're in the flight levels, the shape is distorted by perspective and hard to relate to a map. I use them cautiously for that reason.

Judy

 

[poadeleted3]

Len, Lance, and Ron are right. Lance's suggestion about picking a radial that will keep you clear is also a good one--I've used that many, many times. However, I don't just follow the radial, I keep monitoring everything else as well, just in case. Kath, I'm with you, it's just not that hard if you're paying attention. About the only things you might have done differently are (a) before you got to the wrong lake, realize that you weren't on the right heading for your target lake, or (b) figured out ahead of time that there were multiple twisty lakes close to your path and that you would have to be extra careful to pick the right one. But that's not a criticism, just a suggestion for refinements of your technique. Also, lakes are tough--from any distance, unless you're in the flight levels, the shape is distorted by perspective and hard to relate to a map. I use them cautiously for that reason.

Judy

I used to think lakes would be awesome landmarks, and in some circumstances they are. But, I've also been known (in the distant, distant past, years and years ago of course) to fly toward the shadows of clouds on the ground that I thought was a lake in mid-winter, while flying right over the frozen, white one that was my real landmark. More than once, I've headed for the wrong one. Now, I only use lakes if they are really big, if they are the only one around, or if there is something else nearby that I can use to confirm I'm actually looking at the right lake. And if I can be certain they aren't frozen over.

 

[BillG]

Hi, my name is Bill and I have a problem - I'm bad at pilotage and ded reckoning. I don't like it - never have, and I don't think I'm very good at it. Although during a BFR a couple years ago my CFI/friend shut off everything electronic as I flew from my home field 20 miles west of Boston up to Hampton, NH (past Manchester and a couple of Class D fields, etc). After a while he had me put on foggles, too. Eventually I threw up my hands and told him I had no idea where we were, but we should have been there. He had me pull off the foggles and look around - no airport in sight. Because I was directly over it. Musta been dumb luck.

 

[azure]

Long before 9/11, ADIZ's, GPS, and even LORAN, I learned to use a VOR to keep me clear of SUA in unfamiliar areas. If you pick a radial from an appropriate station that you would have to cross to stray into trouble the CDI can easily tell you when you are getting too close to that line.

Lance, that's something I hope CFI's in areas with lots of SUA's teach their students early on. I learned the technique from my first CFI on a dual XC around the south edge of the DTW Bravo - as well as the need to keep a healthy margin for possible instrument error. Later on my long XC I used it to confidently get within sight of TVC while an airshow TFR was in effect - the TVC VOR was at the exact edge of the circular TFR, defined by a radial off the VOR, so I had only to stay well on the other side of the radial tangent to the TFR (i.e. 90 degrees from the radial defining the center of the TFR) to know that I would be safe. Of course I kept my eye on the chart too, cross checking where I thought I was based on instruments against roads and other landmarks.

Of course in the end, the important thing is to KNOW where the restricted airspace is, to mark it PROMINENTLY on your chart, and to use every available means to be sure of your position and that you are well clear .

Liz (edited to correct a typo in a TLA)

 

[corjulo]

The guy in charge of making all the FAA Maps gave a talk for one of the wings seminar not to long ago. He had a tip I have found really helpful when dealing with charts and checkpoint. He said that, in addition to picking a checkpoint always pick a secondary checkpoint to guide you to you main point. So, if you picked a Dam as a checkpoint then you might pick a river the runs into the dam.. and so on.

 

[kath]

Liz & Lance... I've used that "make sure the needle stays on <this> side and you're good" technique when negotiating around Bravo airspaces on several occasions--it's a great technique. Every Boston terminal chart I have has a radial drawn off the LWM VOR that I use to delineate the 70/40 shelf from the extremum of the 70/30 shelf... very handy when taking off from BED towards the east.

I think the theme here is that pilotage has to be backed up with something. With GPS, with VOR, sure those are great tools. But dont' forget it can also be backed up with more pilotage. Sure, you're heading for a lake... but what about the roads? The railroads, cities, mountains? Are they all making sense too? Who here hasn't gotten that "somethin aint right" feeling well before being able to pin down for sure that you were off course?
Being around an ADIZ or a Bravo or SUA requires more rigorous and vigilant cross-checking. Of whatever tools you've got in the plane.

--Kath

 

[Arnold]

Hi, my name is Bill and I have a problem - I'm bad at pilotage and ded reckoning. I don't like it - never have, and I don't think I'm very good at it. Although during a BFR a couple years ago my CFI/friend shut off everything electronic as I flew from my home field 20 miles west of Boston up to Hampton, NH (past Manchester and a couple of Class D fields, etc). After a while he had me put on foggles, too. Eventually I threw up my hands and told him I had no idea where we were, but we should have been there. He had me pull off the foggles and look around - no airport in sight. Because I was directly over it. Musta been dumb luck.

Musta been good primary training.

I try to practice these on VFR fights in good VMC that are less than 150nm or so, I usually flight plan by drawing a line on the chart, a quick wind triangle on ye 'ole E6B and cirlce check points every 20nm or so. This has two benefits, first it keeps those basic VFR skills a little less rusty, and second it keeps my head outside the aircraft looking for check points AND traffic.

I also remind you that Hampton, NH (7B3) is grass and so a little more difficult to see. It used to be a great place to go and rent cubs to fly.

 

[Flyboy]

Hi, my name is Bill and I have a problem - I'm bad at pilotage and ded reckoning. I don't like it - never have, and I don't think I'm very good at it. Although during a BFR a couple years ago my CFI/friend shut off everything electronic as I flew from my home field 20 miles west of Boston up to Hampton, NH (past Manchester and a couple of Class D fields, etc). After a while he had me put on foggles, too. Eventually I threw up my hands and told him I had no idea where we were, but we should have been there. He had me pull off the foggles and look around - no airport in sight. Because I was directly over it. Musta been dumb luck.

The trick I found to making pilotage easier was not to pick landmarks on the direct line of travel, but to each side. And pic lots of them and identify each one. If you pick only ones in front, you only have the time it's off your nose to see it and some aircraft limit that time due to panel design. To each side, you have along time to spot them.

 

[spiderweb]

. . . a brain . . .

The most important piece of navigational equipment.

 

[fgcason]

When I realized my reservoir error, it felt scary to know that I'd made an error that would've taken me straight into the ADIZ. I remember telling my passenger, "Whew! That was lucky!" I've been thinking about that error even more recently. Making errors is inevitable. I gotta think I would've figured it out in plenty of time. (The city of Baltimore is pretty hard to miss.) I do not want to let go of my faith in pilotage as a form of navigation. It's my favorite by far.

I don't think you got lucky. I think you paid attention to what was going on and listened to that little voice in your head saying something was not right and did something about it. Don't ever loose that skill. It makes a failed VOR receiver a complete non event.

Pilotage is my favorite XC flying too. I pick a few get-unlost navaids along my route then turn the electronics off or at least tuned to the twilight zone and have fun for hours on end. If you ever cruise along at 700-1000 AGL for a while (not in tower country please) without following roads/rivers etc, you really clean up your pilotage skills. I'm always 1/4 to 1/2 mile off to one side of my route. It's kinda hard to see landmarks when they go under your spinner. Besides, everyone else is flying centerline on routes and I say more power to 'em cause we'll never meet that way.

BTW: For lakes and such, pick out dams (that most often straight line on a curvy shoreline is obvious for orientation/identification purposes). The length of the dam is important too. Another is to look for forested areas on one side of a lake when trying to determine which side a town is actually on. Houses are often buried in trees nowadays but downtown/business areas are in the clear by nature of their very design thus a hole in the forest. Treed areas will also tell you where the streams/rivers go in or out of a lake at. This isn't always the case especially in New England forest country but it's definitely something you can use for some terrain. In Upstate NY on early summer morning flights I use to navigate by the fog lifting off lakes and rivers out of valleys. You can't see the lakes/rivers themselves due to the valley's they're in the bottom of but you can see the cloud rising to a few thousand feet above the ridges. It works.

I cringe whenever I hear someone say "I'd never go there without a GPS!"

So do I. GPS is not bad from the little I've played with them but they're not magic solutions to problems. At one of the local safety meetings a while back, one of the FAA inspectors just got through doing a 709 ride with a guy that got completely lost out east of the PUB/COS area in severe clear and had to call for help. If you've ever been here, even 150 miles east you have pancake flat one one side and a wall on the other. That should give you a good idea which way you're going but this guy had complete faith in a line on a tv screen that just happened to be programmed wrong.

Whiz Wheel, manual wind triangles, plotters, pencils, erasers, charts, windsocks, waves on lake surfaces and town names on the water tower. Everything else is fluff.

Frank.

 

[RogerT]

When I learned we learned pilotage first, long before we
ever started working with the VOR. Everything we did
was by looking at ground reference points and the map.
Do they just not teach that anymore? Back then GPS
wasn't even available. And around here it all looks the
same .. flat.

 

[grattonja]

Kath. I have been one of the ones espousing GPS. But you are right. I followed your story about your trip to IAD with interest. And I think you had about the same level of equipment as these guys. So I will concede that you certainly can do this trip safely with the equipment on board.

I certainly could do so as well. But I feel more comfortable in that airspace with my GPS on. I think it helps me significantly with situational awareness, and gives me the ability to pinpoint my position to ATC at any given time without any effort.

Do we NEED GPS? No. Should we rely on gps and not engage in pilotage or ded reckoning? No. Is it helpful to have advanced techonology like gps on board, as long as you know how to use it and don't rely on it to the exclusiong of basic navigation skills? You bet.

But I agree with all who say that eyes out the cockpit and a sectional with a line on it and knowledge of where you are, right there in your lap, that is the cornerstone of VFR navigation. And anyone who can't do that shouldn't leave the pattern.

Jim G

 

[silver-eagle]

All the wizzbang electronics aren't worth a damn if you don't have the skills to interpret what they tell you. My CFI also told me to use everything in the aircraft. I think the number one tool is a current map; one you've reviewed and plotted your trip on. If you follow it and always know where you are, you'll stay out of trouble. Afterall, aviators have been doing this for 101 years.
Pilotage is a skill that needs to be used to keep current. Some day, you might not have the electronics to help.

 

[T Bone]

When I learned we learned pilotage first, long before we
ever started working with the VOR. Everything we did
was by looking at ground reference points and the map.
Do they just not teach that anymore? Back then GPS
wasn't even available. And around here it all looks the
same .. flat.

Yes, they still teach it! I know, because I got my ticket March 29th 2005. I resisted the impulse to purchase a GPS, primarily to ensure I learned proper navigation first. On my dual Xc, the CFI insisted strictly visual, no VOR (the only electronic nav device in the plane). I continued with strictly visual for my 3 solo Xc's, using the VOR only as I neared home to be certain I stayed clear of KDTW's Bravo, and on the final leg of my long, when I had a large DG error (caging knob trouble/user error ). I'm still enjoying flying by pilotage and using VOR's, but now I'm beginning to seriously consider a GPS (also flying a plane with an installed Garmin 430, just started with that, and am working at learning the unit). These won't exclude the primary visual navigation, but supplement it and make it easier. That is I think, the way it oughtta be done.

 

[Ed Guthrie]

But I agree with all who say that eyes out the cockpit and a sectional with a line on it and knowledge of where you are, right there in your lap, that is the cornerstone of VFR navigation. And anyone who can't do that shouldn't leave the pattern.

Well, if that is the criteria then based on my very unscientific sampling about >90% of the current pilot population would be grounded. I regularly volunteer for FAA Wings Weekend events. Since I don't bring a rental airplane to the events, most of the people with whom I fly brought their own. These days the vast majority of those aircraft seem to have some form of moving map/GPS installed. At some point in the 3 flight hours I will switch off the GPS and announce, "Navigation radio failure, possible fire, get us on the ground at the nearest available airport as soon as possible." I usually offer one helpful tidbit (i.e. "We are currently here, over this airport, but the runway was just corked by a gear up Baron and a bunch of rescue equipment."). Armed only with a sectional nearly all of the pilots with whom I have flown have been unable to find the nearest airport, or any airport for that matter other than the one directly below us. I have no reason to believe that the average pilot's skill set is any better.

 

[Lance F]

Any other long time glider pilots on this board? In the late 70s and early 80s, I did a lot of glider competition flying. This was cross country flying in the days before GPS. By competion rules radio navigation aides were illegal to use. You had a sectional and a compass. That was it. Since getting lost didn't do a whole lot for winning, we got quite good at pilotage and didn't think anything of it.

Truth be told I love my 430, but pilotage is still fun for me. If things aren't busy and I can see the ground, I'll cruise along with the autopilot on and the sectional in my lap still practicing identifying landmarks.

 

[dogman]

I think it is a matter of staying current as far as training as a pilot.

I see it all the time.
Kicks the tires lights the fires makes no radio takes off into the wild blue yonder has no pre flight breifing and no current charts or A/FD. Turns on the GPS folows the line on the screen and makes a straight in with no calls. Seen guys take off ,enroute, land never make a radio call. Same type pilot usually avoids Controllers.

I don't know what to think other than we are all responsible for staying current in our skills and knowledge including rules and airspace.

If he really did get that far off course I cant see how. He should not be flying.
Its like many here have said "Best navigation tools are a chart and eyes out the window." Dead reckoning and Pilotage The oldest and best form of Navigation. To many people who lose this Skill.
What about check points on a Chart and a Nav Log, MY GOOD NESS????

Bet the Student is really discouraged. Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time!

I posted this in the original thread about the tow men who about got shot down, Over the VP's home.

The whole problem is many people are to impatient, large ego's and you know the super pilots. They are the same people who cut you off in traffic and drive 80 miles and hour in a blizzard or when its raining like a cow ****ing on a flat rock. Many pilots do not think they have to keep learning?? There pilots they already know it all. Why ?
Because they are A__holes. Then there are the people who can't walk and chew gum at the same time but they end up being a pilot.
There are people out here flying in planes that are out of annual and the pilot has not had a BFR or med. in 10 years.Why do they but us and GA at risk Because they're
A__holes
I guess the age of tech. has made many dependant on GPS's and such, but many people are lazy and wiill take what they see as a short cut. The GPS is a wonderfull tool but is a back up system for me. VFR I use Pilotage and DR I have always took pride as an outdoors man of keeping tabs at all times where I am at. Ive done the same in the air I have never been lost in either and will keep working hard to increase my knowledge by studying and learning all I can about Flight and Navigation.

I owe it to My self My family My Fellow Pilots.

 

[Carol]

Any other long time glider pilots on this board? In the late 70s and early 80s, I did a lot of glider competition flying. This was cross country flying in the days before GPS. By competion rules radio navigation aides were illegal to use. You had a sectional and a compass. That was it. Since getting lost didn't do a whole lot for winning, we got quite good at pilotage and didn't think anything of it.

Truth be told I love my 430, but pilotage is still fun for me. If things aren't busy and I can see the ground, I'll cruise along with the autopilot on and the sectional in my lap still practicing identifying landmarks.

I always have a sectional with me and open. I play "find the airport" when I seen one on the display screen of the GPS. I look at the sectional and see what should be around it. I've gotten pretty good at it. I also mark on the sectional the time I pass landmarks. I don't know why. But it makes me look out the window instead of just at instruments.

There's a glider club at our airport. Those guys are quite good at pilotage. They really hate landing "out."